The press release from Budweiser (Issues: Environmental Sustainability, p171) in the url below features a survey that claims the majority of students during Spring Break engage in responsible behavior:
“… according to a new survey, conducted by The Nielsen Company on behalf of Anheuser-Busch … most college students, ages 21 and older, are acting conscientiously and responsibly during their spring breaks.”
Budweiser discussing (trying to minimize) the negative social consequences of its products reminds me of Philip Morris trying to persuade people to stop smoking (Special Cases of CSR: Philip Morris Companies, p307) and McDonald’s warning against the dangers of obesity (Special Cases of CSR: McDonald’s, p305):
“The stereotype that most college students engage in high-risk drinking and other irresponsible activities during spring break is clearly not the norm," explains Carol Clark, vice president of Corporate Social Responsibility at Anheuser-Busch, Inc. "This survey reinforces that most students are focused on making smart choices and making a difference.”
I find it all somewhat surreal, funny, and sad at the same time. Such pronouncements speak to the advance of CSR as an issue that firms must address today, but also, I think, represent an important commentary on contemporary society. They suggest that firms are able to resist or avoid stakeholder expectations and perhaps, at some level, also reveal a degree of superficiality to the CSR ‘movement.’ While firms might receive criticism at the fringes, they constitute only glancing blows, rather than serious efforts to instigate change. As a result, the effort to re-think how we live and operate as a society, and engage in a way that contributes rather than detracts, is diminished.
Have a good break!
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther
CSRWire Press Release
Press release from: Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.
Getting More Than a Tan Out of Spring Break
Survey Reveals College Students Show Concern for Others, Themselves
March 4, 2008
http://www.csrwire.com/News/11279.html
